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Monday, March 8, 2010

Flower Party Decor -- Dollar Store Style!

I'm so excited about Spring! I went outside with the boys this morning and discovered that my daffodils are blooming! HOORAY!! Signs that warmer weather really is coming!

With that in mind, today I'd like to share what I came up with for my Dollar Store Crafts post this week -- flower-themed party decor!

First, my favorite -- the Happy Birthday banner!

I used pre-cut craft foam flowers and craft foam sheets, both found at my local dollar store.

I lined up 14 flowers in a pleasing color configuration and fed them through my sewing machine, connecting them all. I was pleased that the craft foam sewed up so well! I used a slightly longer stitch to avoid perforating and tearing the flowers, and sewed through the upper portion of each flower so they would all hang upright.

LOVE those bright, springy colors!

I then cut circles for each center, and freehanded letters to spell "Happy Birthday" -- with one blank flower between the two words. I used plain old tacky glue to adhere them together. Done!

I can't tell you how happy this bright banner makes me!

Next up: Pool noodles! I busted out my trusty electric knife and cut my pool noodles in 3/4" slices. Aren't they just delightful? They would be SO pretty just floating in a pool as decor -- or even as packing material, in place of those boring packing peanuts!

Here's what I used them for:

I took a couple pool noodle flowers, some acrylic paint (you can find some like mine at the dollar store if you don't have any on hand -- I didn't!), and a roll of plain wrapping paper, and used the noodle flowers as stamps.

Ta-Da! Fabulous wrapping paper or table covers! (Mine is still wet and wrinkly in the photo.) Stamping like this is a super fun project for kids, too!

I then took a few more of my pool noodle flowers, a kitchen knife, and some straws...

Then, last but not least, my pool noodle flower garland. I cut a few slices of a green pool noodle, then cut the "petals" apart to create little green circle "leaves" to go in between the flowers. I tried stringing them two different ways -- one with strong quilting thread, and one with yarn. The yarn version worked much better. I used a regular-length, large-eyed needle, which worked okay because you can squish the noodle flowers over the needle to make it work. Or, to make it a little easier on yourself, you could certainly use a super long tapestry needle.

I love all of it -- especially that banner! I am really looking forward to spring; it was so much fun to work on something bright and fun to get me even more in the mood for warmer weather!

30 comments:

Love it all! Great idea on the pool noodle flowers - so cute! You could do a lot of fun things with those little slices. I just got a pool noodle and cut it in half and my sons have been beating each other with them for the entire week! :)

Care you amaze me every time. I can barely come up with something creative to feed Avery for lunch and you whip out these totally awesome projects on a daily basis! Can you bottle your energy, I'd like to buy some please :)

Those are some great ideas! I would have never thought of cutting the pool noodle like that, but now I'll have to get one and make some of those neat straws for this year's Cousin Camp. The kids will love them!

Let me add another "Wow, what a bunch of great ideas!"“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Albert Einstein

Isn't it neat when a tool designed for one specific purpose ends up being the best thing to use for another? Electric turkey knives are terrific for cutting foam, and on open-cell foam (couch cushions, mattresses, etc.) it work just as well, if not better, since you don't have to worry about uneven cuts because of compression!